Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes recently pledged to give operational funds to six police stations to boost the campaign against illegal drugs.
Each station will receive P5,000 a month, while P10,000 will be given to the Mandaue City Police Office (MCPO) headquarters per month.
“The marching order of the mayor is to eradicate illegal drugs since this has become rampant, and destroyed many lives and caused many crimes,” said Senior Supt. Petronelli Baldebrin, director of MCPO.
The city government also plans to buy six patrol cars and 24 motorcycles for the police and Traffic Enforcement Agency of Mandaue (TEAM).
“I want to empower the police stations by providing patrol cars to help shorten the response time to crimes and allow them to patrol the streets more,” Cortes said.
In a meeting last Wednesday, the Mandaue City Peace and Order Council recommended that the city set aside P5 million in the 2016 annual budget to acquire land for the construction of police stations, said Roger Paller, city information officer. Some police stations occupy barangay halls while others are due for demolition like the Opao Police Station which is built on top of a creek. Paller said the Mandaue City Chamber of Commerce and Industry is willing to help defray the cost of building new police stations.
Supt. Josefino Ligan, chief of the City Intelligence Branch (CIB), said progress was made in the first quarter with the arrest of 49 persons in 33 operations, and seizure of P366,000 worth of shabu.
Last year, 216 persons were arrested in 155 illegal drugs operations and 235 grams of shabu worth P2.8 million were seized.